Yao: Blame me for 1st-round flameout

Before the playoffs started, Tracy McGrady made a simple proclamation: "It's on me."

By saying that, McGrady was shouldering the burden of finally getting the Rockets past the first round of the playoffs, something they had failed to do since 1997.

But after the Rockets' 103-99 loss to Utah on Saturday in Game 7 of the Western Conference opening-round series, Yao Ming was more than willing to shoulder the burden for the team's latest failure.

Not quite enough

Yao scored 29 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter that almost — almost — saved the day for the Rockets, but he again was stung by defeat ... even though the Rockets had built a 2-0 series lead and had Game 7 at Toyota Center.

"I feel like I want to cry," Yao said. "I know everyone says that tomorrow is a new day and that I'll have a long career, but in the last two weeks we've gone from up 2-0 all the way to 3-4, and it's all over for our season. That's very frustrating."

Most frustrating of all was one particular part of the box score — rebounding. Yao, all 7-6, 315 pounds of him, finished with only six rebounds. And when the game was on the line, Yao — or any other Rocket for that matter — couldn't manage to get his hands on a rebound. Instead it was Utah's Carlos Boozer getting the job done, tracking down a long rebound of a Mehmet Okur 3-pointer and converting two subsequent free throws to give the Jazz a four-point lead with 19.9 seconds to play.

'Didn't do my job'

"I didn't do my job," Yao said. "I didn't do a very good job of rebounding. Rebound, rebound, rebound. Whatever, long rebound, short rebound — it's my job to rebound. You can't say because it's a long rebound that I couldn't get it. I have to get it. I didn't do my job."

Yao knows that he and Tracy McGrady, who also scored 29 points (but only two in the final 4:28) are going to be in the line of fire this summer.

Neither superstar has ever advanced past the first round, and Yao said both he and McGrady will just have to weather the storm of criticism.

"There's no way to get past this. We have to go through it," Yao said. "Whatever people say, we have to take it. If we hurt, we hurt. You know what? There are no shortcuts. You have to put your passion into the summer workouts and prepare for next season. The only way to get through is to just if you get your next chance, don't let it pass."

By MICHAEL MURPHY
Chronicle News Services